Thing #6 of “23 Things”

Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

I picked YouTube! After considering a good number of these Award nominees websites I realized that I wasn’t getting anywhere in my decision. Most of these websites are good at what they do. I liked how easy it is to create a page ready to go with iGoogle. I would like to study Portuguese and Italian, therefore I decided to take a look at Mango Languages. It is a good idea but it costs 350 per course or 12 months subscription. I even thought about using a different web site not on the list, for example http://www.howstuffworks.com/ which is an excellent source of knowledge and a great resource for educators, or http://www.secretoscuba.cultureforum.net/, a site where Cubans from all over the world and people with an interest in Cuba post pictures, blogs, videos and news about Cuba and stories and facts from Cuban history. A forum where Cubans do what they are denied in Cuba: Free speech. But as I said, these weren’t on the list.
Then I noticed that YouTube is on this list. I picked YouTube because I believe is a great source of knowledge and free information for educators and long life learners. If I want to cook a Cuban dish I don’t need to call my sister in Miami, I just search in YouTube and I am certain that I will not only find the recipe, but probably I get to see some Cuban vet actually cooking it. I often search for songs of my childhood and youth and even shows that were never aired again on TV but someone, moved but old memories, decided to upload on YouTube. The other day I got a root canal on one of my molars. My dentist explained the procedure when asked in less than 5 minutes; therefore I had a vague idea of what he did in my mouth. When I searched in YouTube I got to see exactly what the dentist did. I even saw an animation which further clarified the procedure.
I found some mysterious mounds in my front yard. I obviously suspected they were made by some sort of animal, perhaps a tarantula, or a snake… but there was no visible entrance. When I searched YouTube for “mysterious mounds in yard” I not only learned that they were made by moles, but I saw various videos made by expert exterminators on how to get rid of them. I did.
You can use YouTube to learn from experts or people that just have their own ideas about the theme that you are researching. You can watch reviews and demonstrations on almost any product out there. If reading a product review in Amazon is a good thing, to be able to see a video demonstration of the quality of the product is impossible to beat.
This is why I decided to select YouTube… although everyone knows YouTube! Then again, I think that we all know about most of the other good sites on that list! That is one of the reasons why they are good sites in the first place right?

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